Consumer Guide Album

Phranc: I Enjoy Being a Girl [Island, 1989]
The first uncloseted lesbian to bed down with a major label since Isis, and what does she come up with? The cover design of the year and an album so arch it crumbles without a proscenium. Not that she never gets away with it--the chamber-styled Toys R Us tribute and the praisesong to Martina that spells out her nation of origin are worth hearing even after you know the jokes. Moreover, the few "sincere" numbers disappear instantly. But any record that makes its most effective political statement on behalf of child-eating polar bears is resorting to weirdness as a protective device. B